Concentrated oil-in water emulsions of liquid active ingredients or active ingredients dissolved in a solvent are commonly used in agricultural compositions due to certain advantages provided over other formulation types. Emulsions are water based, contain little or no solvent, allow mixtures of active ingredients to be combined into a single formulation and are compatible with a wide range of packaging material. However, there are also several disadvantages of such agricultural emulsions, namely that they are often complex formulations which require high amounts of surface-active agents for stabilization, are generally very viscous, have a tendency for Oswald ripening of the emulsion globules and separate over time. Therefore, improvements in such emulsion formulations are needed in the agricultural field.
Several oil-in-water emulsion compositions for cosmetics and dermatological applications have been described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,658,575; U.S. Pat. No. 5,925,364; U.S. Pat. No. 5,753,241; U.S. Pat. No. 5,925,341; U.S. Pat. No. 6,066,328; U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,778; U.S. Pat. No. 6,126,948; U.S. Pat. No. 6,689,371; U.S. Pat. No. 6,419,946; U.S. Pat. No. 6,541,018; U.S. Pat. No. 6,335,022; U.S. Pat. No. 6,274,150; U.S. Pat. No. 6,375,960; U.S. Pat. No. 6,464,990; U.S. Pat. No. 6,413,527; U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,461,625; and 6,902,737; all of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference. However, although these types of emulsions have found advantageous use in personal care products, these types of emulsions have not been used previously with agriculturally active compounds, which are typically present in emulsions at much higher levels than cosmetic active ingredients.
One example of an agricultural oil-in-water emulsion composition that is suitable for agriculturally active ingredients that are liquid or soluble in suitable solvents at relevant storage temperatures is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/495,228, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated by reference herein.
The present invention is related to agricultural compositions comprising an oil-in-water emulsion, the oil-in-water emulsion composition having an oil phase and water phase, the oil-in-water emulsion composition comprising an oil adapted to form oily globules having a mean particle diameter of less than 800 nanometers, a polymeric modifier that is compatible with the oil phase, at least one agriculturally active compound, at least one non-ionic lipophilic surface-active agent, at least one non-ionic hydrophilic surface-active agent, at least one ionic surface-active agent, and water.